


coward

by donnatroy



Category: DCU, DCU (Comics), Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics)
Genre: Emotional Hurt, F/F, F/M, ha what the fuck am i doing ever, jason is trying his best okay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-29
Updated: 2017-05-29
Packaged: 2018-11-06 04:29:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11028663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donnatroy/pseuds/donnatroy
Summary: He never meant for you to be caught in the crossfire.





	coward

Danger comes with him, you knew that from the beginning but you didn’t care about that because you needed him and any risks that were involved were worth it to be with him. At the end of the day, no matter how many bullets you pulled from him or the amount of guns you would find hidden around your shared apartment, the amount of threats or close calls, the ounces of blood that you would scrub from the kitchen tiles or the horrible nightmares that left him waking up in a cold sweat, shaking and on the verge of tears, Jason was worth it all.

He didn’t seem to think that he was worth it, especially when you’re the one being threatened.

Jason has no idea how Black Mask knows your name or how he knows that you’re his partner, he’d been so careful to hide you from his enemies. He could probably figure it out if the camera that was trained on you wasn’t so fucking close to the apartment. 

His blood boils and hands clench at his side, an ugly noise reverberates from the back of his throat. “How?”

“Ah, Red, you know, you aren’t as careful as you’d like to think. My lackeys followed you to their apartment, all it took was looking at the mail box.”

“Don’t you _dare_ hurt them.”

Black Mask only chortles at that, turning to face Jason and grins widely, “I won’t hurt them. But Hugo here will in about, oh, five minutes if I don’t call him.”

Jason sucks in a sharp breath of air. There’s options here, but none of them are desirable. It’s be easy to just shoot him right here and end it all right now but he wouldn’t be able to get to you in time or he could comply with with Black Mask and somehow get you underground when the time is right. Both result in losing you. Then again, he could just wait until after Black Mask calls.

“Either you work for me or I never make my call.”

Fuck.

* * *

He comes home with a chip on his shoulder and his feet dragging on the ground. You watch him plop down on the couch next to you and drags his hands down his face.

“Jay, is something wrong?” 

He snorts, head falling back against the back of the couch, trying to find the best way to get you to leave, for you to never look back at him. As much as he knows this will hurt, he’s got to do this. If you got injured… if you died because of this, he would never forgive himself. 

“Please, tell me what’s wrong. Don’t shut me-”

“I never loved you.” He says, cutting you off and he holds his breath, not being able to look at you. He wouldn’t be able to go through with this if he even glanced at you.

“What?”

“You heard me. I _never_ loved you.”

Neither of you say a thing. You try to take in what he said, trying to understand why he would say that, if it was even true because you know, you know in your heart that he loves you.

“Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s the truth.” He sees you reach toward him and he pushes himself up, making his way towards the door.

“How can you… that’s not true,” You’re quick to follow him, grabbing his shoulder, trying to get him to face you, “Jason, that isn’t true. Stop lying.”

Jason shrugs your hand away, picking up his jacket and shoving his arms through the sleeves. This is better. this is better. it has to be. For you. For the both of you.

“None of this was real. It was playing house and stringing you along for the ride. Did you really think a man like me could ever _love_ you?”

“You’re a coward!” You shout at him, wiping away the tears that had escaped, “You can’t just run when it gets tough. We’re supposed to be in this together. Please, talk to me, we can still fix this.”

“I’m not running. I’m saving you.” God, he was even convincing himself that this couldn’t be fixed, that you’d be saved by him running away.

“No, you’re not. You’re saving yourself,” You take in a breath, wrap your arms around yourself like they could shield you from what was happening now, “If you walk out that door, it won’t be open for you ever again.”

You don’t really mean it. It’s just the first thing that comes to your mind and it doesn’t have it’s desired effect. You can hear Jason whisper that it would be better like that before he opens the door and is gone in a blink of the eye.

You don’t know what’s worse, the fact that he’s actually gone or that his things are still littered through your home, serving as a reminder of what you’ve just lost.


End file.
